Report of the Director of Children’s Services to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to be held on 21st November 2018.

N Subject:

The Bradford Education Covenant

Summary statement:

This report provides a summary of the progress of the Education Covenant since the last report in December 2017 with a focus on the continued development of the core offer, youth voice, stakeholder’s involvement in determining the priorities for this academic year, school engagement and impact.

Michael Jameson Portfolio: Strategic Director Education, Employment and Skills

Report Contact: Jenny Cryer, Overview & Scrutiny Area: Performance, Commissioning and Children’s Services Partnerships, Children's Services Phone: (01274) 432438 E-mail: [email protected]

1. SUMMARY

This report provides a summary of the progress of the Education Covenant since the last report in December 2017 with a focus on the continued development of the core offer, youth voice, stakeholder’s involvement in determining the priorities for this academic year, school engagement and impact.

The Education Covenant is making clear progress supporting our children and young people at all phases of education with opportunities that will support them in raising the attainment levels and aspirations in children, young people and families. It has become a key conduit to promote the greater involvement of our community partners in the lives of young people, though providing brokerage with learning partners.

2. BACKGROUND

At its heart the Education Covenant is a community promise that we will work together, with the collective goal to ensure that we ensure Children and Young People have successful lives and transition into adulthood.

The successes of the Education Covenant have been achieved by building strong relationships with a range of community partners, developing joint ideas with them and enabling them to grow and develop then access and support Education by providing a brokerage service. The activity has grown across the range of partners including businesses, community organisations and individuals, resulting in a wide range of programmes which in themselves now have their own identity i.e. The Bradford Community Champions.

Since the last report, the work of the Education Covenant has continued to solidify the relationships of current partners and provision, as well as broker new resources, programmes and initiatives for the benefit of our young people delivered through a wide range of settings including schools and community organisations.

We have just launched the new education covenant prospectus for this academic year following the great success of the 17/18 version. The 18/19 prospectus offers schools 63 free activities from 52 different organisations, across all key stages, seeing an increase of 37 organisations offering their support and harnessing even more opportunities for children and young people. The prospectus forms a vehicle to leverage learning provision into schools and align such provision with the overall careers and technical education framework Bradford Pathways.

The core programmes aligned to the Education Covenant continue to grow and develop:

 The Industrial Centres of Excellence is continuing to grow, this year we are planning that we will have over 15,000 young people supported through the partnership, up from 3000 in 17/18.  The Inspiring Bradford Programme that took place in October 2017, acted as a catalyst to inspire primary schools to embed careers education into the curriculum now resulting in a £200k investment from the Opportunity Area funding to support between 70 - 80 primary schools in the most deprived wards, over the next two years with aspiration days, along with 2 networking events each academic year to be delivered to enable head teachers and senior leadership teams to build a network of supportive business leaders, professionals and Further and Higher Education contacts who will support the delivery of careers encounters integrated into curricula.  Bradford Pathways – Dixons Research School are developing curriculum guidance document that will offer practical advice and ideas to support embedding essential skills into the curriculum at each age and stage of a pupils learning.  In total 17/ 18 we had 4699 businesses that actively supported students at school, college and the university through work experience, site visits, industry visits, internships and other work based learning placements.  Young people accessed 4693 community visits last academic year and 410 so far this academic year i.e. visits to the Science and Media Museum, St Ives Park and many other.

2.1 Public Relations (PR)

The Education Covenant twitter account and Stay Connected e-newsletter, along with press releases are proving a great success in communicating good news stories coming out of the Education Covenant, helping to attract even more support from partners.

 The Twitter account has 931 Followers and Following 4182 with 769 tweets.  Stay Connected has 4402 people subscribed.  The Education PR Campaign plan has been put in place.

2.2 The Education Covenant Review

On the 18th June 2018 we hosted the ‘Building the Covenant’ event which celebrated the great work the covenant has achieved so far and the ways that community partners are supporting our children and young people. 56 people from different organisations attended to consider next steps for the Covenant. There was representation from schools and colleges, businesses and the voluntary sector and key people from the public sector.

The aim of the day was to move the covenant forward and to discuss how key stakeholders could get more involved strategically and what delivery would look like. The day was also really beneficial in shaping our next year’s focus and priorities. As one of the senior leaders expressed ‘the Education Covenant is ‘a promise that cannot be broken’.

Following the discussions at the event the priorities for the Education Covenant for the next academic year (2018/19) will be:

 Engaging parents and carers in the Education Covenant and building an offer to support them and their children.  Building a ‘cultural’ covenant that encourages families to engage and take part in the wonderful local cultural offers that we have in the district.  Continue to grow the core Education Covenant offer and reissue the Covenant prospectus this September.

The conversation at the event was captured pictorially:

Positive feedback from the day included:

 The Education Covenant can make a difference!  Definitely want more parental involvement/family learning and more work in Early Years.  There was a general feel of positivity about the Education Covenant and the majority felt in order for a young person to achieve and be successful the fundamental basics have to be in place i.e.: good health care, diet, being a positive citizen and recognising that they are individuals.  One primary school Head teacher felt the employer week she runs is brilliant and more schools should run these with the support from the volunteers sourced through the Education Covenant.  One delegate having known nothing of the Covenant before she arrived felt it was very informative and was very positive about it.

Delegates found the event a great opportunity to network and give strategic input into the Covenant and as such we will be holding an annual Education & Business Conference, this academic year it will be held in June 2019.

2.2 Bradford Community Champions (BCC)

Last year saw the launch of the Bradford Community Champions and what a year it has been. Over the last Academic year 2017/18 the Bradford Community Champions:

 Have interacted with over 1500 young people  Have attended assemblies at various schools such as Carlton Bolling, Queensbury and TRACKS (Trust, Respect, Achievement, Confidence, Knowledge, Success)  The Bradford Community Champions were also involved in the ‘What’s my line’ activity when they did the Inspiring Bradford event through Primary Futures for a full week attending different schools.

A full BCC report of the last academic year is now available and has direct feedback from schools including the Head teacher of one of our outstanding schools Carlton Bolling College who said ““Our school mission statement is ‘excellence for all’. We want to promote the highest of expectations among all of our students, so the Community Champions initiative is something we were keen to be involved in.”

2.3 Cultural Covenant (including youth voice)

2.3.1 The 25 x 25

The development of the cultural covenant has progressed and the 25 x 25 framework has gone out for consultation with children, young people and families. The 25 x 25 has the aspiration that all Bradford’s young people will have 25 cultural experiences by the age of 25.

The consultations took place at:

 Bradford Festival which brings a vibrant, colourful and multicultural programme of the very best international, British and local theatre, art, music and dance right into the heart of Bradford – 837 members of the public were consulted ranging from birth to 92yrs old.  The Dragon Boat Festival - 178 young people aged 11-18 were consulted  3 Primary Schools – speaking to children and parents.

This consultation has been important to capture the voice of young people and to inform the development of the framework. The 25 x 25 is being developed by the Local Cultural Education Partnership in partnership with the Education Covenant.

2.3.2 Outstanding Culture for Children and Young People – Public Forum for Education.

On September 27th the public forum for education shared the results of the youth voice survey along with showing evidence that children who participate or experience cultural education (arts, drama, dance, music) learn more effectively.

Speakers from Feversham Primary Academy including musical entertainment by the children and Riddlesden St Mary’s Primary talked about how cultural experiences transformed their schools. Christian Bunting, Teaching School Director at St Edmunds Nursery School and Children’s Centre talked about the Early Years Cultural Offer.

Evidence was presented by Feversham Primary Academy at the Forum showing the basis and impact of their approach, details are given in Appendix A.

2.4 School Engagement

67 primary schools out of 155 have been engaged with the Education Covenant over the last academic year. Following the great success of the Inspiring Bradford Launch Event some schools are now dedicating a day or a week to developing career and enterprise activities, local businesses and companies have been engaged to come into schools and support career activities and awareness of different occupations. See Appendix B for a case study at Shirley Manor Primary school.

The 33 mainstream Secondary Schools and all four local colleges are engaged with the Bradford Pathways framework and are benefitting from the links made with community partners through the Education Covenant brokerage service. Examples are shown in Appendix B.

2.5 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)

STEM learning continues to be an integral part of the engagement with schools and is heavily supported by our community partners. The good practice from across the core areas of work was recently shared with Australian Educators who came to learn from the underpinning teaching and learning practices used through the approach we have. Examples were given of the experiential and project based learning in relation to STEM. Examples of this work are shown in Appendix B.

2.6 Queens College Schools Liaison Officer - Widening participation

In 2017 the role of Bradford Schools Liaison Officer was established. This enabled a person to be based in the city itself and offer consistent, intense support which cannot be achieved where the liaison officer is based in Cambridge. The Bradford schools Liaison officer started in September 2017 and is based in Bradford Council in the Pathways team.

The Schools Liaison Officer engaged with 26 Secondary schools in the 2017/18 year, with activities offered both in Bradford and Cambridge, including residential trips.

Feedback has been positive from students and teachers, in particular student surveys found:  89% felt more knowledgeable about universities in general  100% felt more knowledgeable about Oxford and Cambridge  48% more likely to consider applying to a Russell Group university  63% more likely to consider applying to Oxford or Cambridge

More detail and a full list of engagement can be found in Appendix C.

3. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

The Education Covenant is part of the wider work on community-based development activities through Business engagement, Inclusive Growth, People Can and the Opportunity Area.

4. FINANCIAL & RESOURCE APPRAISAL

The Education Covenant continues to be primarily funded through the implementation fund.

5. RISK MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE ISSUES

No significant risks.

6. LEGAL APPRAISAL

No legal issues.

7. OTHER IMPLICATIONS

7.1 EQUALITY & DIVERSITY

None

7.2 SUSTAINABILITY IMPLICATIONS

None

7.3 GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IMPACTS

None

7.4 COMMUNITY SAFETY IMPLICATIONS

None

7.5 HUMAN RIGHTS ACT

None

7.6 TRADE UNION

None

7.7 WARD IMPLICATIONS

There are no Ward or area implications, the Education Covenant works on behalf of all children and young people in Bradford and the District.

7.8 IMPLICATIONS FOR CORPORATE PARENTING

No direct implications for corporate parenting arising from the report.

7.9 ISSUES ARISING FROM PRIVACY IMPACT ASSESMENT

No data protection or information security matters arising from the report.

8. NOT FOR PUBLICATION DOCUMENTS

None

9. OPTIONS

None

10. RECOMMENDATIONS

 That the Committee acknowledges the progress of the work.  That the Committee commend the work of community partners in delivering work with Bradford children and young people undertaken as part of the Covenant  That members of the Committee continue to promote the Education Covenant in their networks.  That members acknowledge the priorities for this academic year as established through consultation with community partners:

o Engaging parents and carers in the Education Covenant and building an offer to support them and their children. o Building a ‘cultural’ covenant that encourages families to engage and take part in the wonderful local cultural offers that we have in the district.

11. APPENDICES

Appendix A – Extract of evidence presented by Feversham Primary Academy at the Public Forum for Education showing the basis and impact of their approach. Appendix B – Examples of activities in schools and community partner support. Appendix C - Queens College Cambridge – Widening Participation.

12. BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

None

APPENDIX A Extract of evidence presented by Feversham Primary Academy at the Public Forum for Education showing the basis and impact of their approach. Stand-out points of 21st century research Children studying music retain 17% more of what they hear in class and develop better memory systems. People who study music are more adaptable to change Children learn language better through song Children perform better in all kinds of cognitive tasks with classical music playing in the background. This is more pronounced when studying music. Music study grows the brain, creating higher executive function, and improves problem solving abilities. Singing releases endorphins, serotonin and dopamine IQ can increase by up to 7.5 percent. Children with a range of special educational needs, including ADD, Autistic Spectrum Disorders, Dyslexia, Behavioural conditions and mental health issues, see a huge benefit The most profound benefits happen to those who begin music study before the age of 7 and study it practically. Impact of embedding music into the curriculum at Feversham Primary Academy and the positive influence of this: • 2011 Special measures - 3.2 percentage points behind the national average in English and 2.4 points behind the national average in maths • This year 74% of pupils achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, against a national average of 53%. • We are 7.1 points above the average for reading and 3.4 above for writing • We are 6.5 above the national average for maths. • Our results for disadvantaged pupils are well above average. • Attendance improved from 92% to 98% • 98% speak English as a second language at home • We are now in the top 1% for pupil progress. • Nominated for TES Primary School of the Year 2018. Continued positive influence: • We have appeared on The One Show, Radio 5 Live. • Global attention and enquiries – hundreds of visitors. • We have advised OFSTED’s research team and the BBC. • We will play a big part in the Music Commission’s proposals for the 2020 National Education Plan. • We are pushing for CPD for existing music coordinators and PGCE primary music specialist qualifications for new music coordinators.

Research Background • Evidence suggests that musical learning can promote structural and functional changes in the brain (e.g. Tervaniemi, 2009; Moore et al., 2014) • Evidence suggests that music and language are processed in similar, as well as distinct regions of the brain (e.g. Patel, 2010, Koelsch, 2012) • Evidence suggests that joint music-making can have a positive impact on social skills and feelings of well-being (e.g. Kirschner & Tomasello, 2010, MacDonald et al., 2012) Music and Dyslexia Children with dyslexia can have difficulties with rhythm production tasks as well as with language skills (e.g. Thomson & Goswami, 2008) Performance on rhythm production tasks is linked with performance on phonological, reading and spelling tasks (e.g. Flaugnacco et al., 2014) A recent MAP study found that 15 weeks of classroom-based rhythm games with children with dyslexia significantly improved their phonological and literacy skills (Moore, Branigan & Overy, in prep)

APPENDIX B

Examples of community partner engagement and activities in schools.

Primary Schools

67 primary schools have been engaged with the Education Covenant over the last academic year. Following the great success of the Inspiring Bradford Launch Event some schools are now dedicating a day or a week to developing career and enterprise activities, local businesses and companies have been engaged to come into schools and support career activities and awareness of different occupations.

 Barkerend Academy  Bankfoot Primary  Ben Rhydding Primary  Bowling Park Primary & Nursery  Blakehill Primary  Byron Primary  Clayton Village Primary  Carrwood Primary  Cavendish Primary  Cullingworth Village Primary  Dixons Marchbank Primary  Denholme Primary  Eastwood Community School  Priestthorpe Primary  Farfield Primary  Fagley Primary  Farnham Primary  Frizinghall Primary  Fearneville Primary  Girlington Primary  Grove House Primary  High Crags Primary Leadership Academy  Holycroft Primary  Home Farm Primary  Hollingwood Primary  Holybrook Primary  Ingrow Primary  Howarth Primary  Keelham Primary  Killinghall Primary  Lapage Primary & Nursery  Leytop Primary & Nursery  Lees Primary  Long Lee Primary  Low Ash Primary  Merlin Top Primary Academy  Oakworth Primary & Nursery  Oxenhope CE Primary  Parkland Primary  Parkwood Primary  Peel Park Primary  Poplars Farm Primary  Beckfoot Priestthorpe Primary & Nursery  Reevy Hill Primary  Riddlesdon St Mary's CE Primary  Shirley Manor Primary Academy  Keighley St Andrews C of E Primary  St Stephens C of E Primary  St Marys & St Peters Catholic Primary  St Pauls C of E Primary  St Matthews C of E Primary & Nursery  Swain House Primary  Thackley Primary  Thornbury Primary Leadership Academy  Thornton Primary  Thorpe Primary  Westminster C of E Primary  West Bourne Primary  Wibsey Primary  Wilsden Primary  Green Lane Primary  Brackenhill Primary  Stocks Lane Primary  Beckfoot Heaton Primary Academy  Heaton St Barnabus Primary  Lister Primary  Dixons Manningham Primary

CASE STUDY:

Shirley Manor Primary School

Shirley Manor have developed careers activity into their curriculum and call their aspiration day “Future Me”, which include classroom discussions exploring different careers, what skills you would need, if you need to go to college or university. Other activities at the school include creating visuals of what their dream job might be.

Since engaging with the Education Covenant through the Bradford Pathways framework, they have had a number of employers engaged and a software company who allowed access via the internet to a career programme that helped young people to identify jobs matched to their skills, likes and dislikes.

To kick off their “Future Me” day, one of the Bradford Community Champions spoke to all the children, setting the scene but also talking about the importance of learning and in particular Maths and English. Volunteers; a chief magistrate, photographer, marine biologist, sports coach, poet (inspirational speaker), construction engineer, an archaeologist and the Police. The Lord Mayor also provided an opportunity for a pupil to be a mini mayor dressed in ceremonial robes, which students had to apply for.

A Quote from the Head

“On the 20th March 2018 Shirley Manor Primary Academy held its first Future Me day. The aim of the day was to raise aspirations and discover what our children’s hopes and dreams for the future are. We had a variety of visitors from a wide range of professions ranging from a Hairdresser to a Marine Biologist. We also wanted the children to make connections between the subjects they liked to the careers they could have in the future. This was done using a career software package where the children discovered the types of jobs they may enjoy. For example a Jockey, GP, Farrier, Diplomat to name but a few.

The children particularly enjoyed listening and quizzing our visitors as they went into classes. The children are still talking about it now and we are looking forward to building on this next year”.

(Heather Lacey - Head Teacher)

Secondary and Post 16 Engagement

33 Secondary Schools and all four local colleges are engaged

 Appleton Academy Beckfoot (Bingley)  Beckfoot Oakbank  Beckfoot Thornton  Belle Vue Girls' School  Bingley Grammar School  Bradford Academy  Bradford Forster Academy  Bradford Boys Grammer  Bradford Girls Grammer  Buttershaw BEC  Carlton Bolling College  Dixons City Academy  Dixions McMillan Academy  Feversham College  Forsters Academy  Grange Technology College  Hanson Academy  Hazelbeck  Ilkley  Immanuel College  Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College  Oastlers School  One In A Million  Parkside School  Queensbury High  St Bede's and St Joseph's Catholic College  The Holy Family Catholic School  The Samuel Lister Academy  Thornton (Beckfoot)  Titus Salt  Tong Academy  UAK

 Bradford College  Shipley college  Keighley college  Craven College

We continue to work with other Partners who have aligned themselves to the Bradford Pathways Framework such as:

 School Governors One Stop Shop - 14 Schools both Primary and Secondary  National Literacy Trust -11 Secondary Schools  Ahead Partnership - 12 Secondary Schools  Dame Kelly Trust - 6 Secondary Schools  NCOP - Titus Salt School and Tong to place some outreach workers.  ASK Apprenticeships - 14 schools to talk about apprenticeship opportunities  Social Mobility Foundation - 5 Schools  Provident Social Mobility Business Partnership - 10 Schools came forward for their Social Mobility project - 3 were chosen  Apprenticeship Finder - 3 Schools  Forget Me Not - 1 School  Women in Engineering - 1 School  Shape4all Oxford Project - 4 Schools  Army Youth Outreach Team - 2 Schools  Ernst and Young Foundation - 6 Schools - 12 young people  NHS-Nursing Ambassador Events 18-19 Academic Year - 10 Schools

CASE STUDY

Parkside School - Aspire to be programme

A piece of work looking at year 7 to year 13 embedding a comprehensive CEIAG plan which included working with community partners.

Parkside are taking a lead on embedding the Bradford Pathways Framework as this Academic Year they will be doing the following:

 All faculties - a planned visit to a local business at least once per year  Head of Faculty to link topics they teach to employers to see if there are opportunities within the curriculum that they could support  All facilities to facilitate at least one meaningful encounter with an employer for each year group, this may be team teaching, guest speaker, and visit to a work place. This has to be built into the curriculum and made explicit.  All faculties have to be explicit in their Schemes of Learning as to when 'Employability Skills' will be taught i.e. public speaking in English, problem solving in Maths  All faculties to consider how to incorporate subject related career activities i.e. enterprise

Other examples of activities in Secondary Schools:

Tong School - 3 day CEIAG activity which included:  Day 1 - Visits to colleges, Universities  Day 2 - 8 employers came in and did employability sessions with year 10  Day 3 - Careers fair for all year groups

Hanson School  Careers day has grown every year - 20 businesses and providers attended the Careers day  10 interactive workshops for year 12

Working Groups with community partners:

The Keighley and Shipley Apprenticeship Hub  7 schools and all the four colleges which are Bradford, Shipley, Keighley and Craven College sit on the apprenticeship hub as well as the LEP and other key organisations  Share good practice  Invite external partners in to talk about apprenticeships

Widening Participation Group  A collaborative working group looking at opportunities for post 16 engagement and widening participation. Partner’s Include-NCOP/NCS, Bradford College/University/LEP/Bradford Pathways

CEIAG Network  Working with both Aspire I Gen and the LEP the role of the Careers Live Network is to engage collaboratively and strategically to contribute to the CEIAG outcomes for pupils in the area with reference to the Gatsby Benchmarks. Following feedback from schools so far, it is anticipated that each meeting would focus on one or two of the Gatsby Benchmarks in more detail.  To provide regular updates, promote and share best practice around CEIAG  To identify areas where collaboration benefits the wider members of the group through task & finish groups  To contribute intelligence to the Careers Live Network that supports its aims and purpose  Members act as Ambassadors for CEIAG within their own schools:  Disseminating relevant information to colleagues and contacts  Supporting the group in its work  Ensuring linkages with relevant activities  promoting the benefits of CEIAG

One Nation One Briton OBON

 The Education Covenant supports OBON with recruitment of schools to celebrate values, intolerance, and fairness in society, respect which all links into the Essential Skills in the BP framework.

Gatsby Benchmark and Toolkit

 With the LEP we are working with every school to ensure we are supporting them with the Benchmarks and the toolkit and how this aligns itself to the Bradford Pathways Framework.

Examples of STEM Activity:

Schools often have their own strategies for developing and promoting STEM subjects or may engage external organisations to support them. Through the Education Covenant and its partners a number of schools projects have been supported:

 The F1 transition project is currently being hosted and in effect piloted by Hanson school. Hanson school initially started to invite its primary feeder schools to participate in the project. Hanson approached Bradford Pathways to help engage the schools and had a launch event to promote the project. Eventually we invited more partners such as the representative for STEM at Bradford College and Bradford University. As a result Bradford University were able to offer some financial support that allowed primary schools to participate without incurring the cost of materials.

 Hanson’s “Team Entity” won best pit display and 3rd place at the regional heat at the York STEM Centre. They qualified and competed at the national final at Silverstone and won best team pit display, best sponsorship and marketing awards and placed 6th out of 15 in the country for a development class. Two other teams “Atoms racing” won best pit display at the regional heats for entry class, and “Encryption” won future stars award at the regional heats. The hope for the next academic year is that we will engage many more primary’s with the support of the STEM Network helping to identify which schools are in most need of support in STEM which may be identified through the data we have available relating to deprivation and the science self-assessments primary’s complete.

 Lego League is hosted by Bradford University and involves primary schools in the district and regionally. The STEM Centre on campus organise the schools attending and provide the hospitality and necessary support for the day. Schools participating have a task to complete before attending which is assessed at the venue whilst competing against all the school teams. The learning outcomes for participating are STEM related and help to break down some of stereo-types and diversity issues often associated with this sector.

 The Bradford STEM Network meets regularly to map the collective STEM provision in order to better promote and support Bradford and the surrounding District. This work stream is linked into the STEM Champion Cllr Tait with a STEM calendar of events.

APPENDIX C

Queens College Cambridge – Widening Participation - 2017/2018 Review

Origins of Bradford/Queens’ College link

The University of Cambridge has a long history of widening participation activity to encourage high ability students from under represented areas to consider applying to highly selective universities. In 2000 the Area Links Scheme was established across the university. This matched each of the 31 undergraduate colleges with areas across the country. The aim of the scheme was for each college to have areas that are their primary focus for widening participation activities, and each area to have a first point of contact at the university in order to create strong and consistent partnerships. The area link for Bradford is Queens’ College.

Bradford Schools Liaison Officer

In 2017 the role of Bradford Schools Liaison Officer was established. This enabled a person to be based in the city itself and offer consistent, intense support which can not be achieved where the liaison officer is based in Cambridge. The Bradford schools Liaison officer started in September 2017 and is based in Bradford Council in the Pathways team.

Activities of the schools liaison officer

The majority of activity can be categorised as follows:

 Year 12 & 13  Lower School  Programme There are other miscellaneous activities included in the provision of the Liaison officer. These include supporting schools led activities such as careers fairs and options evenings, teacher CPD and engaging with other companies in the widening participation sector such as the Brilliant Club.

Year 12 and 13

These are obviously significant years for future attendance at HE and as such form a large part of the liaison work undertaken. In autumn term year 12 students can participate in a workshop on introducing Oxford and Cambridge universities including addressing misconceptions about the institutions such as their high financial cost. It also gives information on important activities students can engage in to make a strong application to Oxford and Cambridge or other highly selective universities. These are super curricular activities which show subject interest and their personal commitment and are key factors admissions tutors look for

At the end of the academic year personal statement workshops are offered to support the application process including preparing for the mandatory early October 15 deadline. There is also the opportunity to attend the University of Cambridge open day. For any applicants to Oxford and Cambridge an interview workshop is offered at the beginning of autumn term in year 13. This explains the interview process, answers common concerns such as attire and gives advice on the best way to prepare.

Lower School

This consists of engagement with years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 although the most common years involved are year 9 upwards.

Presentations and workshops are given to this group which introduce Russell Group universities as well as Oxford and Cambridge. They are often designed to raise aspiration and emphasise how the choices they have yet to make such as GCSE or A Level options could influence which university they can attend. Often a personal story is used, emphasising the similar background of the liaison officer or previous school alumni who did go to study at these universities.

School Engagement

This is the list of all schools that have had at least one interaction with Queens’ College in the 2017/18 year

 Beckfoot Oakbank School  Beckfoot School  Beckfoot Upper Heaton School  Belle Vue Girls' School  Bingley Grammar School  Bradford Academy  Bradford Girls' Grammar School  Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College  Carlton Bolling College  Dixons Allerton Academy  Dixons City Academy  Dixons Cottingley Academy  Dixons Kings Academy  Dixons McMillan Academy  Dixons Trinity Academy  Feversham College  Ilkley Grammar School  Immanuel College  Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College  Parkside School  Queensbury School  St Bede's and St Joseph's Catholic College  The Holy Family Catholic School  Titus Salt School  Tong High School  University Academy Keighley

Activity Breakdown

VISITS to Cambridge

Students 71

Teachers 7

Parents

This includes two residential trips for schools as well as the city wide opportunity to attend the University of Cambridge open day.

VISITS in Bradford

Students 686

Teachers 60

Parents 14

The number of students interacted with is a minimum figure, it involves estimating how many students for example to count for a school careers fair where they all have the possibility to engage but some may not.

Composition of visits includes:

 3 Careers Fairs  10 Year 12 workshops introducing Oxford and Cambridge  10 Interview workshops for Oxford and Cambridge applicants (4 of which for schools with a single applicant)  6 Personal Statement workshops  5 Programme sessions  The rest includes talks for younger year groups, miscellaneous student events and also supporting teachers in CPD regarding application support for Oxford and Cambridge. Queens’ College Progressive Programme

As well as creating the Bradford based liaison role Queens’ College was keen to establish a programme of activities that could be offered for students across the city.

Modelled on UK wide outreach programme good practice, as well as extensive research with Bradford schools themselves, the Queens’ College Progressive Programme was created and launched 2018.

Target Schools

The programme was designed for an initial cohort of 6 schools with 10 highly able students from each year group. This amounts to a yearly engagement of 240 students.

To select the cohort, data analysis was conducted to find schools which fit the University of Cambridge’s widening participation targets for POLAR and OAC classifications. The six schools in the cohort are:

 Beckfoot Oakbank School  Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College  Carlton Bolling College  Dixons Allerton Academy  Queensbury School  University Academy Keighley

Programme Logistics

The programme works with students in year 9 who progress through the programme until they leave in year 11. They will be supported across the city in years 12 and 13

The activities for each year group take place for two cohorts of 30 pupils as follows

Cohort A Cohort B

Beckfoot Oakbank School Buttershaw Business and Enterprise college Carlton Bolling School Dixons Allerton Academy Queensbury School University Academy Keighley

The cohorts remain the same throughout the programme to encourage connection with the pupils from other schools

The majority of activities are Bradford based taking place at the National science and Media Museum but there are activities at Queens’ College

Programme Activities

Year 9 – Learn about students

In year 9 there are two sessions designed to introduce the programme and follow on into the activities in year 10

Session 1 – Introduction to highly selective universities

Session 2 – Introduction to Oxford and Cambridge

Year 10

Year 10 activities follow on from the year 9 year of “learning” by “being” a student and each session pupils apply one of the skills key to studying at university

Session 1 – Finance

Session 2 – Academic Taster Session

Session 3 – Research skills with independent summer project

Year 11

Session 1- Queens’ College Visit

Development is ongoing for a year 11 summer residential at Queens’ College

Programme feedback

The programme has 12 sessions throughout the year and in this opening year, 5 sessions have been run.

Feedback has been positive from students and teachers in particular student surveys found:

 89% felt more knowledgeable about universities in general  100% felt more knowledgeable about Oxford and Cambridge  48% more likely to consider applying to a Russell Group university  63% more likely to consider applying to Oxford or Cambridge

2017/2018 had engagement from 5 of the 6 target schools although one school, Beckfoot Oakbank, had activities on site rather than externally due to their site move. 2018/2019 should see the whole cohort of 6 schools involved for the first time

Data notices have now been confirmed to capture data which will monitor the effectiveness of this programme using a national analysis programme HEAT

Other engagement

A dialogue was initiated with the library and there has been consultation about the implementation of a teen focused reading challenge to mirror the national Reading Challenge for 7-11s. Work is on going

Partnership has been formed with the National Science and Media Museum who support the programme sessions

2018/2019 Role aims:

 Increase engagement with schools and target schools who have newly engaged such as Parkside School  Continue work on the reading challenge with the library service to encourage the positive benefits gained by reading  Aim to formalise the year 12 and 13 provision of the programme with the opening of New College Bradford